Obi's GSC, Soilless, 2021

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I have an opportunity here to completely crush gpw.

I just bought a power meter to verify how much my light is pulling. The results shocked me. First I checked the power draw from a 1500W toaster. Meter showed 1480W. Within margin of error for both appliance and meter.
 
I bypassed the dimmer switch on the light to check max power. Peak @ 500W

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I plugged the dimmer back in and holy crap. I'm only running the light @ 150W...

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So, 150 watts. And I feel as though I'm dancing on the edge of light stress. Yesterday I raised the light 10 inches and dimmed the light (evidently to 125W).

The plants have grown close enough to start experiencing issues. Yesterday the tops were lighter green than usual with sad leaf tips pointing downwards. New growth appeared weak, thin, not right. At first I thought I had a nutrient deficiency or over watered. Checked my logs, deficiency not likely and I routinely underwater.

Changing the light improved things in 24 hours. I still can't believe I'm only running @ 150W. Kind of suggests a reason to why the cabinet never warms up.
 
I had one branch on one plant that got really pissed off. Seems like light stress to me. Everything else looks pretty good.
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You can see that one offender in there...
 
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150W at 30 inches. Let's see how they do.
 
Diatomacious said:
You should pick up a light meter and check canopy level... you done built a beast son :rofl:
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I have an organic light meter (the leafs), lol.

Seriously though, I've toyed with the idea of purchasing a meter. Tried some phone apps with low success.

It would be nice to find a friend locally who has one and rent it. After a few readings it would most likely sit on the shelf collecting dust, me thinks.
 
Obi Wan said:
After a few readings it would most likely sit on the shelf collecting dust, me thinks.
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With that giant light you are probably right (won't move it much once you dial it in). I need to pick one up myself as the LED lighting is hard for me to gauge brightness. I been reading the leaves myself lately... I'm just thinking you could set it and forget it once you know the right numbers if you had a meter. Maybe I'm more just thinking to myself with the keyboard. :rofl:
 
LED takes some getting used to. No doubt about it.

I started with T5s. Upgraded to MH/HPS. Then I built this silly LED fixture. The plants react to it a little differently than the T5 or HID.

I really like growing under T5. It was the starting concept for the LED fixture. I wanted to recreate the light spread the T5 is so good at. The plants sort of bathe in the fluorescent light. They crave it. Horrible efficiency though and too much heat. I'll figure out this new light. This will be harvest number two. I'm loving the journey!
 
These things are ready to be topped and cloned. Only 4 will go into the LED cab. I have more seeds of this cross. This is the first pop.
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Obi Wan said:
The plants sort of bathe in the fluorescent light. They crave it.
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Fluorescent light is near impossible to burn the plant with... I usually let them get to almost touching the bulb with no probs. Those LED's just throw out way more light and can easily burn a plant. Kinda why I was thinking about the meter so I could find the "sweet spot". Haven't even looked yet so I'm just all talk at the moment.

Plants are looking great... love that color.
 
There's a YouTube channel called Migro, the bloke on there (shane) tests alot of LED lights.
He also recently did a few videos about light apps and lux meters. He tested them and matched the results against his apogee meter, it shows the good apps/meters that were close to the apogee readings. I bought the lux meter that was closest to the apogee readings, it only cost me £16 and gives good readings and peace of mind.

The videos are worth a look.
 
Listersmeghead said:
There's a YouTube channel called Migro, the bloke on there (shane) tests alot of LED lights.
He also recently did a few videos about light apps and lux meters. He tested them and matched the results against his apogee meter, it shows the good apps/meters that were close to the apogee readings. I bought the lux meter that was closest to the apogee readings, it only cost me £16 and gives good readings and peace of mind.

The videos are worth a look.
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Definitely with a look. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
At lights on.
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Finally recovering from the light stress. I'm confident I lost nearly a week. Things are looking on track again.
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